


flock together

by hecleretical



Category: Pyre (Video Game)
Genre: ALMER/CHAE IS COMPHET, Gen, and she's transfem and a lesbian, nonbinary gol golathanian or die, scribes and nightwings bonding, seriously the scribes love chae so much it's unreal, seriously who doesn't have a crush on pamitha (who's into women), sexuality realization, the vagabond girl's name is chae
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:33:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27765304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hecleretical/pseuds/hecleretical
Summary: chae the changeling thinks she likes someone. gol golathanian can relate.(or, birds of a feather....)
Relationships: Gol Golathanian & Vagabond Girl, Gol Golathanian/Soliam Murr, mentioned one-sided/puppy crush chae/pamitha
Kudos: 7





	flock together

“She’s definitely too old for you,” Gol Golathanian says firmly, sitting down next to Chae. There’s no unkindness in his voice, and it’s what she had been thinking anyway, so she just sighs.

“I know. And, I think she might like Miz Bertrude? Or at least they talk, quite a lot in fact. It’s just..........she’s so pretty?”

Chae sighs again. The color of her wings and hair, the shape of her face......that knowing smile she had, and how tall she was, too, taller than Chae, and she was very funny? And most of all her eyes. She had very pretty eyes. Always very sharp and thoughtful.

“She’s just so pretty,” she says again.

Mister Gol makes a listening noise.

“And it’s also just......very confusing? I think?” Without thinking she scrunches up and leans her head against his shoulder. He’s not tall, maybe an inch more than her, smaller than Miss Pam and definitely smaller than Miz Triesta. He’s not big and bulky either, like Mister Soliam. But there’s a solid warmth to his shoulder, and although he gets very still and careful when she leans on him he never pushes her away.

“I always knew I was a girl,” she says, “even when they told me I wasn’t. But I thought, maybe if I was a girl, I had to like boys? Like that boy in the Fate. Almer I think is his name? And he’s okay. I mean I like him!”

She deflates. “But.....maybe I think, I think that maybe I just like him. As a friend.”

“It’s not a difficult mistake to make.”

“And maybe I haven’t ever liked boys? And, now I like Miss Pam.......”

“Mhm.”

“I don’t know. It’s very confusing. It’s much too confusing by far.”

They sit in silence for a moment.

“When did you know? That you like boys.”

“Hmm.” He thinks about it. “I think I always knew a little bit-- as a child. But I grew up in a very small village, and there just weren’t that many children my age.”

Mister Gol laughs a little, dryly. “And then when I was fifteen I joined the army and was surrounded by strong muscular people in close quarters with me, and I definitely knew then.”

Chae giggles.

“Well, there’s nothing like bathing in a river with soldiers unconcerned about propriety to tell you who you like and who you don’t. So younger than you, but not by that much.”

She frowns. “You joined the army when you were fifteen?”

“I did,” he says solemnly. “I lied about my age. I was the fifth child of a farmer in a small village out in the provinces, and I had absolutely no prospects.” He sighs. “I thought if I left home I would finally be able to make something of myself-- or at least stop being a burden.”

“Well, you did.” Chae smiles at him. “I’m sure your family up in the stars is very proud.”

He sighs again, the way he always does when he’s thinking about being Master-General. "They may be," he says. "If they're not more ashamed of all I did."

"It must have been hard. At first?"

"It was. The Sahrian Legions were absolutely no place for a child." He turns to look at her, a little sharply, but again not unkind. A thoughtful hum. "We're not so different, you and I-- in a way."

She's proud to be like Mister Gol, even if it's in a sad way-- or glad at least that someone else knows. The Scribes have always been there for her, have always understood her. "When did you know that you weren't a boy?"

"That, I didn't figure out until much later. First I was in a small town, I didn't know anyone like that, though my family always let me dress and act how I wanted. They were kind people, my eldest sister especially. Then, I was in the army, and I felt as though I had to be a man. Especially once I came to court."

"Were they like the people I stayed with?" They had cut her hair and made her wear boy's shirts.

"I don't think anyone would have done that. I frankly wanted to kill those people. But they wouldn't have understood-- they would have talked." He sighs. "We were better about people loving their own gender, but in many ways I think we were even worse about how people dressed and called themselves. So it took me a very long time, and even then I only told a few of my closest officers."

"The Accusers!" She loves hearing about the first Accusers, and seeing his smile when she brings them up.

"Yes. In the Downside, I was able to think about it much more."

"It's good like that. Everybody here calls me Chae-- Mister Reader even helped me remember! And nobody thinks I'm not a girl."

"You can probably thank Triesta. She's like you, of course, and she was very stern with the first exiles about it until they learned to behave." He winces. "You know how she is."

Miz Triesta could be. Well. Chae loved her! And she didn't want to say anything bad? But she could be very, um. Stern. That was a good way to put it. She mentally apologizes for agreeing with Mister Gol.

"I know, Mister Volfred says--" and this is always a touchy one, in the Blackwagon or with the Scribes, because, she doesn't think Mister Gol or Mister Reader like him very much? "Mister Volfred says that we're all, we're all like our Scribes, supposed to be like rememberings of you. But I don't think Miss Pam is very much like her at all."

"And it's not a bad thing," he mutters. Mister Gol holds up his hands to still her protest. "I know, I know, I like her just as much as you do."

She considers. "Well-- don't tell Miz Triesta this but I maybe wouldn't have a crush? On her? If she was?"

"Have you told her?"

"Oh....no, I don't know...."

"You don't have to. I don't think she would think differently of you. Although again, she is too old, so it would be more for your sake than anything else."

"I might. I might tell Mister Reader? He'd know what to do."

"He's got good sense."

They sit in quiet again; Chae leans back up against his shoulder. The Scribes are always there for her, and it makes her glad.

"And--" She pauses, not wanting to break the comfortable silence. But she gives him a shy, sly glance. "When you knew you liked Mister Soliam?"

He smiles wistfully. "Oh, that. Well-- and this is going to sound sappy--"

Chae is already rapt.

"It was when I first came to the Imperial Court. I was still a junior officer of the General Staff, so I was standing in the back of a lot of war meetings without being allowed to say anything. And-- I just saw him. The few times he actually showed up."

"You must have had a lot of time to look at him, from not speaking."

"I did." There's a soft fond look on his face, a little exasperated, very loving, the one he gets when he thinks about Mister Soliam. "I thought he was the most beautiful person I had ever seen. Just-- radiant. Soft and dreamy and above it all."

He laughs. "Of course, the look I was thoughtful was actually him not having a single thought in his brain. I think he was mostly hung over at those meetings. It took quite a while for him to shape up, but of course you know how all that goes."

She does. She does make him tell her again, though, and by the time the skies darken for the next rite her head is full of romantic thoughts and dreams. Miss Pamitha's going to compete tonight, too. Maybe after, maybe after Chae will tell her. Maybe tell Mister Reader first-- but surely she would understand?


End file.
